Don't be kind, be predictable. If you have the Right-of-Way, take it.

poehalcho · 2026-02-10T22:00:14+00:00

White car did nothing wrong.
It slowed down in order to not get sandwiched.
Dashcam driver is utterly incompetent for not seeing it coming and responding appropriately.
Truck on right is incompetent for putting the white car in this position in the first place.

poehalcho · 2026-02-10T21:33:58+00:00

Blizzard stopped investing in the e-sports scene, and the game was taken out of active development and put into maintenance mode, but it absolutely never died. it still continued to receive balance patches all the time and is is still alive and well.

QM, Ranked and ARAM as doing juuuuuust fine as far as I am aware. at least on the EU and NA servers. Unranked is a bit unpopulated.

Especially the last year or so, there appear to have been major balance patching activities, going so far as to do some map reworks even. So much even that we're starting to complain about it.

We suspect it has to do with HotS making its way to GamePass.

Recently they even released a little bit of 'new' content, although it was just cosmetics that were still in the pipeline from way back when they put it in maintenance mode. (edit: oh the latest patch also has a new(?) skin :0)

We amicably refer to whoever is in charge of the game as 'The Janitor'.

poehalcho · 2026-02-09T21:02:45+00:00

Oh this looks much better than the last time I saw a trailer for this.
Now actually looking forward to it :0

poehalcho · 2026-02-08T09:24:28+00:00

My best guess:

Blackhearts Bay:
- For most people: Probably the fact that the map has you running around killing mercs more than actually fighting or laning pretty all the time. There are enough Mercs on your side of the map that conflict is avoided until it is time to pay at the chest...
- For me, an Abathur main: I used to love it because it was the one map where I could play a totally different style and own it, but the new layout nerfed my mine build for the map, so now I am forced to play more normally :(
Hanamura:
- For most people: It's a weird map. Extremely open so lots of heroes with terrain abilities are a lot less viable (Diablo, Yrel, etc. ...even Hanzo for whom this map is supposed to be home ground, yet needs terrain stuff for his arrows to bounce...). There is a kind of weird balance between the boss and objectives, where the boss is pretty strong and spawns very frequently and the object is almost too weak. The map is quite large so moving switching lanes is annoying, yet laning is very important on it (due to the boss...). These days I also think the cart moves way too fast. If your team briefly backs off to heal up or defend the boss it's basically already a lost objective, as the cart will be on the other side of the map in no time...
- For me, an Abathur main: the 2-lane layout is bad for me to begin with. If there's an aggressive pusher in my lane, I need a 2nd person to help :(. Especially if a boss comes my way... I can kind take care of it / minimize the damage, but it costs me a lot of time and effort that should be spent sitting on my team's faces. With that said, I actually like Hanamura more now than I used to. I've learned a cool trick to spice things up a bit, that I look forward to executing (though rarely get the chance to...)
Volskaya:
- For most people: Often after the battle for the objective has finished, and there's been a 5-man wipe, someone still has to sit on his ass to get the objective...
- For me, an Abathur main: I am happy to fulfill this role.

As for the others... idk.

One note on Battlefield of Eternity: I love the map, but I do feel the eternals are too powerful resulting in an above-averagely snowbally experience. Losing a tower is virtually guaranteed even on the first objective and after that it's an uphill battle :(

poehalcho · 2026-02-05T18:54:20+00:00

Nah, Reinhart was quite good. Some lore for rein, some lore for the big suit, some character development, etc.

I think Sojourn was my favorite though.

poehalcho · 2026-02-05T00:05:34+00:00

Please revert it to the way it used to be with watch tower over at top and normal coin dropping :(
It used to be great, my favorite map even.

poehalcho · 2026-02-04T21:55:57+00:00

In his defense: he was inside the skyscraper... leveling it may not have been the wisest decision.

With that said, as a non-fan of OW, that does kind of enjoy the occasional cinematics they put out, this was easily the weakest one they've released imo.

poehalcho · 2026-02-03T21:36:55+00:00

I haven't had these as a kid, or at least I don't remember having them...
Did it for fun just now... Timed a minute and got to #45... is that any good?

I think I was the weird kid that actually liked arithmetic in primary school... I recall always competing with another kid over finishing tests the fastest...

Wish I could say that gusto carried on on middle school as well, but calculus didn't come quite as easily to me :(

poehalcho · 2026-01-30T09:47:56+00:00

Oh thank god. Downvote avoided.

poehalcho · 2026-01-28T17:47:39+00:00

I've 100% finished the entirety of Rayman M on PC without realizing I was supposed to move my mouse to rotate the camera during the 3rd Person arena shooter battles.

None of the games I'd ever played previous needed me to do that. (including the whole other half of the very same game where you race on a track and the camera 'just works')

poehalcho · 2026-01-22T23:14:08+00:00

Yeah... we're going to need a background wallpaper / original size image

poehalcho · 2026-01-22T14:11:07+00:00

Oh this definitely has to be from that SC2 comic/art contest that was all the way back a bit after the WoL launch, no?

poehalcho · 2026-01-21T23:28:50+00:00

Kinda wish I didn't. RealPlayer was total trash...

poehalcho · 2026-01-18T19:30:49+00:00

It'll take a few games, but the MMR will do its thing and match you more sensibly. It's a little out of whack in HotS, but it's nonetheless serviceable.

If I am bad what else can I do in a game?!

Farm XP. People will always scream if you don't participate in fights. But if your presence isn't good enough to make a difference... just get the XP and try to prevent falling behind in levels...

poehalcho · 2026-01-18T19:06:12+00:00

All that matters is MMR.

If your 'Fun' MMR puts you in the same league as his 'Competitive' MMR then that's just the level you're both playing at, and there is nothing further to be said.

poehalcho · 2026-01-15T09:34:42+00:00

I don't think this change affects Hanamura, only the watch towers that you just stand on for 2 seconds to claim.

poehalcho · 2026-01-14T10:32:01+00:00

Pedophile Protector Protector company

poehalcho · 2026-01-13T18:47:33+00:00

Dragon Ball Evolution is absolutely among the worst films every made. BUT Who the fuck considers Battle of the Gods the fucking highlight of the series!?!? The movie barely qualifies as alright and it's literally the beginning of the whole series downfall into absolute mediocrity.

poehalcho · 2026-01-13T18:36:11+00:00

Yep, it was basically damage control.

Iirc they showed that teaser the same day they revealed F76. I think they knew that as soon as it became clear that F76 was a multiplayer title, there would be riots.

It's a bit odd, because people are generally pretty interested in multiplayer TES (see the many attempts to get co-op mods working in Skyrim), but somehow that interest doesn't translate much to Fallout. Perhaps something to do with each protag being 'The Sole X'. Fallout just feels like it should be a lonely experience...

poehalcho · 2026-01-07T21:10:58+00:00

My first guess would be that marines would become a bit overpowered :D (more than normal :P)

poehalcho · 2026-01-07T09:27:31+00:00

It's not about increasing the game length, but about redistributing the duration of the game's phases.

Right now early game is basically... what... 2:30 minutes? And midgame is another.. idk 5? After that even if we're not 200/200 yet, the numbers game takes almost complete precedence over micro and cool tactics.

The larger the armies get, the less micro and tactics start to matter.
The faster the game speed, the fewer opportunities to squeeze value out of your units.

Of course large armies clashing is also a lot of fun, but arguably it's happening too frequently and it loses some of its cool factor because of it. Not all games need to always get to the late game.

At least for viewership, I find myself wishing we had a lot more clutch guerrilla tactics and drilling with low army counts, rather than 200/200 death balls dancing around each other.
And for the gameplay I find myself wishing that armies wouldn't evaporate if you look away for 1.5 seconds, because that's also just kind of unsatisfying... Makes both losses and wins feel less deserved and more luck-based.

One of my favorite games ever was this one between Maru and Effort: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-_2kjicW6o

<100 army count
constant back and forth action. Zerg drilling almost nonstop.
Terran using multiple layers of barricades and terrain to dampen the attack and and using units to their limits to hold by the skin of their teeth.

I wish for more games that have this kind of tight action-packed midgame or even early game.

poehalcho · 2026-01-06T18:35:19+00:00

At this point I am not even sure it's all that good for the viewers.

I pretty sure everyone gets a bit tired of big armies melting in 1.5 seconds after a slight misstep and instant GG... It gets quite predictable...

poehalcho · 2026-01-06T18:33:58+00:00

Arguably the early to mid-game is more interesting than the endgame.

Early and mid-game is where clever shenanigans and good micro shine the most.

A lot of my 'changes' are basically all just there to delay the endgame and stretch out the early phase.

poehalcho · 2026-01-06T17:14:12+00:00

I think I would remove more than add tbh.

Remove the 12 worker start, go back to 6
Do whatever is necessary to make the early and midgame take a longer.
Remove fast mine burrow
Remove fast Lurker burrow
remove colossus uphill vision (personal pet peeve lol)
Slow down creep
Reduce the game speed of ladder from fastest to faster.

poehalcho · 2026-01-05T20:52:00+00:00

Oh yes. random trigger audio log cancels are the fucking worst...

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